Can I Get some help With A Miyamoto Musashi Build (Pathfinder)

[Nosta]

Musashi is one of my favorite Swordsman from the Japanese history and IIke to play a character based on him in the next game i'm in. So far i'm thinking Military Tradition Human and Slayer. But
UnSure

The idea is to use a katana and a Wakizahi

I have 6 levels to work with

[grarrrg]

The idea is to use a katana and a Wakizahi

BAH!
Those weapons are overused.
What you want, my friend, is a Boat Oar (Greatclub?).
ALL the style points.

[ThatMoonGuy]

Musashi is one of my favorite Swordsman from the Japanese history and IIke to play a character based on him in the next game i'm in. So far i'm thinking Military Tradition Human and Slayer. But
UnSure

The idea is to use a katana and a Wakizahi

I have 6 levels to work with

What sources are you allowed to use? If it's core only, you probably won't do much better than the traditional TWF. If you can use 3rd party, then options grow a lot. There is a lot of nice things there - Daisho Expertise, Warlord, etc. With that, we can maybe think a bit further.

[Silvercrys]

3rd party Path of War would be really good if it's allowed, yeah, but it's not necessary really.

If you want to do a Strength build, straight Slayer is fine. You can take the Ranger's TWF style and get Double Slice and Power Attack to get damage increases -- you might be slightly behind a two-hander in damage numbers but you probably won't notice unless you do the math.

Dex builds with the Katana are a bit harder. You can use Effortless Lace on your Katana to finesse it, though you'll have to buy more lace if it gets dispelled. There's possibly a fighter archetype you can use to finesse it, as well, though the reference I found said it was "Weapon Master Fighter level 4" and the Weapon Master archetype doesn't have such an ability and I haven't been able to track down what it actually is.

[Nosta]

@ Silvercrys

Well What Feats do you think my level 7 Human (Military Tradition Slayer should have) and should I use regular slayer or an archetype?

[Silvercrys]

Oh, right, I found that reference: there's a feat called Advanced Weapon Training that Weapon Master Fighters can take at level 4 and can give you finesse with any one weapon (and then if you wanted to do the 2 Katana thing, it's not as Musashi of course, but you could take it again at level 5 and get Katanas as a light weapon so you have the standard -2/-2 TWF penalties).

You'll need Exotic Weapon Proficiency with both of your weapons unless your GM allows you to use Eastern Weapon Proficiencies.

If you're Strength based you'll want to take as many TWF feats with Combat Style as you can because they all require Dex 15+. Ask if you can take any feat from your combat style and ignore prereqs with your regular feats or if it only applies when you get it as a "combat style" feat, because you really want at least TWF, Imp. TWF, and Double Slice, but waiting until level 10 to get Imp. TWF or Double Slice hurts a bit and you'll probably have a free feat around level 13 to take Greater TWF even if it's not super useful. Could always get a Dex 15 from somewhere, too, like stat 13 + racial bonus if you really need it.

You'll want Improved Critical since those are both 18-20 weapons and great for crit fishing, plus critical focus + feats to apply status effects like Bleeding Critical and Stunning Critical -- though, unfortunately, you'll either have to do Imp. Crit (Katana) and use a Keen Wakizashi or use two Katanas or Wakizashi so your feat applies to both weapons because Paizo, like Wizards of the Coast before them, hates two weapon fighting. If you have extra feats you could Imp. Crit both of them but... seems not worth it.

You'll probably want Power Attack at some point, even with the reduction for off-hand weapons. Piranha Strike if you're Dex based.

For Archetypes I'd probably just stick to vanilla Slayer, though Guerilla or Vanguard are probably okay if either of those caught your eye. I'd only take Vanguard if there were at least a couple other melee fighters for you to flank with, though.

You're not super well built for taking advantage of your Sneak Attack other than flanking anyway, though, so hopefully you have at least one flanking partner.

That was probably clear as mud, if you can wait a bit longer I could probably produce a build stub with example feats at each level but it might be sometime tomorrow.

[RNightstalker]

IIRC, there's a (prestige) class specific to a Samurai-type that allows feats for a katana to be applied to a wakizashi in the off-hand.

[ThatMoonGuy]

You can dip into Warrior poet samurai to get the proficiencies and Dex to hit with katana and wakizashi while also picking up some useful flourish like Petals on the wind. That can fix your to hit in a dex build but the damage will be subpar.

If you want to get sneak attack damage often, you can also pick the Kitsune's mystique flourish to get a free feint during a move action. Feint to deny the target its Dex bonus to AC and the next attack will have sneak attack damage.

[Silvercrys]

Huh. I'd forgotten Warrior Poet.

You can dip for 2 levels of Samurai and get an extra dice of Sneak Attack that way, too, if you choose Order of the Blossom -- though you'll have to obey the order's tenants and some players don't like being constrained with a code. Order of the Blossom's requirement is that you cannot deny a good faith request for aid from a Fey creature, as long as rendering assistance wouldn't interfere with your duties and isn't opposed to your other aims and goals. You can mostly do without a code if you go Ronin, though.

So, yeah, if you're allowed to use those Warrior Poet Samurai of the Blossom 2/Slayer 18 is a pretty good build, gets 7d6 sneak attack while flanking and Warrior Poet bonuses/proficiencies while keeping full Base Attack Bonus.

Though I suppose straight Warrior Poet Samurai might actually do better for you than Slayer for a Dex build now that I look at it. You don't need to ignore feat prereqs and get a scaling damage bonus of 1/2 class level to make up for a low ability score to damage -- and it isn't reduced for off-hand weapons. You get less Sneak Attack dice (Order of the Blossom only grants 4d6 over 20 levels) though.

Need Slayer or Ranger or some other way of getting Combat Style if you want a Strength build with armor, instead of an unarmored Dex build, though. And still need Keen on at least one weapon unless you're going to take Improved Critical with both Katana and Wakizashi, I haven't been able to track down the prestige class someone mentioned earlier.

Brawling Blademaster Samurai might be a look for a Strength build, you won't be an ubercharger or anything but it looks like they can ignore Dex requirements for TWF feats they take with the Bonus Feat class feature (similar to Combat Style).

[ThatMoonGuy]

The downside of pure Warrior Poet is that they're strongly geared towards single strikes - their challenge extra damage only works on the first attack each round and they get Vital Strike as a class feature. That said, they can use Vital Strike with Spring Attack and can use Kitsune's Mystique during one as well, thus getting Sneak Attack damage. If you can find ways to make your weapons count as a larger than they are, then the damage starts to get competitive. I remember there being a magic weapon property that makes a weapon's size count as one step higher but I think that was in Spheres of Power.

On the upside, since you're just making a single attack very round, you might find more uses for your move action and your to hit will always be plenty good.

[Silvercrys]

You only get Samurai Level to damage from Challenge on the first attack, but you get 1/2 level on all attacks you make with Weapon Finesse that add Strength to damage which is pretty good.

The other class features are a bit focused on attacking once and moving like you said, though. Pity you can't combine Kitsune's Mystique with Sword Saint, though there's probably a way to feint as a swift action somewhere (and probably isn't right for this character because dual-wielding but I'm thinking of Samurai builds now, heh).

The property you're thinking of is Impact, pretty sure. I remember it being a 1st party +2 because I was looking at a vital strike build with large 2-handers, SRD says it's from Ultimate Equipment.

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items...lities/impact/

[ThatMoonGuy]

You only get Samurai Level to damage from Challenge on the first attack, but you get 1/2 level on all attacks you make with Weapon Finesse that add Strength to damage which is pretty good.

The other class features are a bit focused on attacking once and moving like you said, though. Pity you can't combine Kitsune's Mystique with Sword Saint, though there's probably a way to feint as a swift action somewhere (and probably isn't right for this character because dual-wielding but I'm thinking of Samurai builds now, heh).

The property you're thinking of is Impact, pretty sure. I remember it being a 1st party +2 because I was looking at a vital strike build with large 2-handers, SRD says it's from Ultimate Equipment.

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items...lities/impact/

Yeah! That's the one! I remember trying to use it on a AoO naginata build. So, with Warrior Poet Samurai & order of the blossom you can alternate between strong, single sword strikes with Vital Strike + Sneak Attack and TWF + sneak attack. A Vital Strike with a Impact Katana deals 4d6+you sneak attack damage + your Samurai Level + your Str. mod (if any) while the TWF will deal 1d8 (2d6 if impact) + 1d6 (wakizashi) + your samurai level/half your samurai level + your Str. mod (if any). It's not the most optimal damage but not terrible either.

If you manage to, you can get some ninja tricks Talents to improve your sneak attack, like Pressure Points (cause Str. or Dex. damage on a Sneak Attack).